7 weeks ago I fell and broke my shoulder in 6 places. It has been a total nightmare. They told me I was healed and they want to start me on physical therapy. The problem is I am still in so much pain and have been the entire time. They say I should not be in pain. They never checked for muscle, ligament, tendon or rotar cuff damage or nerve damage. The pain is excruciating and I am still swollen. They were going to do surgery but then said they would let it heal on its own. I cant start therapy in this much pain. I'm also scared it may do more damage if something else is wrong. What test can be done to show that there might be a problem in the areas I mentioned?

You can bring up your concerns with your dr and request an X-ray. Broken bones take a long time to heal, and even when healed they aren't back to the way they were before. You may still have mini micro fractures causing you pain. Even if you went to PT, they wouldn't push you to the point of re-injuring yourself. I hope you start to feel better soon.

I called my family Dr. He is going to set up a mri for me. The other doctors refuse to even listen to me. I have been in severe pain now for almost 2 months now. Maybe I will find out what's wrong. Thank you for your reply.

Oh yes, the way I would find one would be to look at a major teaching hospital, find a physician feature they have online, try to find head of ortho or the one that specializes in shoulder and take mri with you. I just had rot cuff may last year still fighting the pain. I just got a cortizone shot, you could try that as well it helped mine a lot. Cathy

I broke the top of my humerus in February and the bone did not heal for a LONG time--almost 6 months. Everybody heals at a different speed. Yes, I agree that you should request an MRI. Only that can show exactly what is going on within the bones plus it shows the tendons, ligaments, etc. When I broke my humerus, I also tore three of my four tendons and I can tell you that all of these injuries hurt alot!! I am not sure which hurt most--the break or the tears! Please keep us updated.

ohhh I feel your pain completely and they can not find anything wrong with me either!!, Im also have shoulder and arm pain, but its in both, I don't know whats going on except for its driving me CRAZY it hurts so bad its a constant pain.... its worse at night because of all the movement during the day, and in the mornings because of the moving around in my sleep witch the pain some time wakes me at night...

Well here is an update on my shoulder. I also appreciate all the replys I got. My family Dr. ordered an mri and called me with the results. He said my shoulder was so messed up he was referring me to a specialist. My shoulder is still broken and swollen. I have moderate and full thickness tearing of the supraspinatus, tearing of the superior labrum and my ac joint is causing impingement. They are trying to set up an appointment as fast as they can. Pain is excruciating.

Hi so sorry to hear this. One thing though you might want to take over finding a dr. I would definitely recimmend this find a teaching hospital go to their site and look up find a physian and try to find the head of ortho or the one specializing in the shoulder. Or you could ask friends. I wanted to add thst I've been thru two rotator cuff repairs and will require replacement on the left on one day. I was about 42 on the first one it was a breeze was back to work in two weeks, I was our network administrator so that was hard being gone. The seond one was juse last yr I was 56 and I've had a hard time lots of osteoporosis in there and it partially froze, be sure to do your pt at home when told. Plus my dr had me wait almost 4 weeks before starting pt and the therapist thought that was terrible. If I had known I would have started doing pendulum exercises (gentley) just to keep it loose.

You need to see a shoulder specialist, do not settle for anyone but. Also insist on prompt treatment, and a thorough explanation of any surgical procedure. I can tell you right now that women are not respected, particularly if they are near middle age. My experience at a highly visible " world class" institution when I had a shoulder injury was terrible, being told I was not worth $2000 for an MRI, that I was just another middle aged woman with a sore shoulder, and that my serious injury had nothing to do with my torn tendons and broken bone. This type of situation gets me so upset, I could spit nails. I ended up on disability with a reverse shoulder replacement, had to travel out of state for competent treatment. I know most cannot do that, but trying to get help after negligent treatment is next to impossible, as most docs will and do cover up mistakes.

Last edited by galalena; 08-29-2013 at 06:56 PM.

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Your injuries sound familiar to mine . . . it can be a very complicated case. I hope you can get things fixed sooner than me, as I injured myself in February and still am waiting on my surgery. Now I have necrosis of the top of the femur (bone death caused by blood supply loss due to the break) and this might interfere with any repairs of the tendons. Please keep us updated!!

I am so sorry you ladies are suffering so with these delays. In my opinion and experience, delays in treatment cause increased problems so much so that when it finally comes down to it, you are stuck with a salvage situation. Believe me, if the docs start talking reverse replacement, make sure you go the the very best most experienced surgeon you can find. My blood pressure is skyrocketing just to read these posts.
I am going to see my surgeon in two days. I just had to complete a survey on my recovery at 6 months this morning. Sorry to say I will bring his surgical outcome record way down with my abysmal condition, but it was not his fault. He tried to fix the horrendous treatment I received after my accident, and that is next to impossible. The pain is constant, function is barely above zero and that is after 6 surgeries. To wait so long that the bone is necrotic is just awful. Of course, I no longer even have the humeral head so that would not matter. I better go read a fun book, since I am on disability from these types of disasters.